YMCA won't renew the lease for a man with a troubled past.

Dec. 30, 2012
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When the rest of us are ringing in the new year, Kelvin “Rock” Robinson will be packing the last of his belongings in his small, first-floor efficiency in downtown Des Moines.

The mentally ill man was one of the first residents 18 months ago of the YMCA’s new Supportive Housing Campus, tucked behind the Ninth Street viaduct. But Y officials didn’t renew his six-month lease at the beginning of December, and he told me last week he thinks he knows why.

“The people who have gotten in so far are veterans,” Robinson said.

I met Rock a few years ago while reporting a story at Churches United Emergency Shelter. The 55-year-old stuck in my memory because he’s articulate, thoughtful and educated, but has a troubled mind.

State leaders have made some progress in the last couple of years in the mental health arena, but Iowa still faces critical shortages of mental health services and facilities. For Rock and others like him, the next step down from a supportive housing program is almost always a homeless camp, shelter or jail.

At our meeting last week at the Y campus, Robinson shared with me a rumor he wanted me to check further: The Y’s supportive housing workers were ousting residents in the 140-plus complex to make room for veterans because they would receive income from a new grant from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

You might have guessed, but a Y official insists that’s not true.

Dave Gieseke, public relations director, said the grant provides $41 a day for as many as 12 veterans. But only two leases that expired in December were not renewed. Robinson’s was one.

Gieseke wouldn’t talk about the exact reasons Robinson is being ousted Dec. 31, but he said leases “are generally not renewed for rules violations. No alcohol, no drugs. You can’t damage your room or fail to pay.”

He also pointed out that Robinson appealed his eviction because his rent was paid by the Shelter Plus Care program overseen by Home Inc., a local nonprofit. The neutral party who heard that appeal sided with the Y, he said.

“We have to look out for health and safety for all 140 members of the unit,” he said.

Robinson admits he got in trouble at the Y last fall when he was attempting to make potpourri by boiling water and adding cinnamon and candle wax. His apartment filled with smoke and the campus alarms went off, but there was no permanent damage.

Robinson also says workers at the Y complex have suspected him of over-medicating himself or using street drugs, which he denies.

More recently, he said, he was called into court for being late on his rent, but the case was dismissed. A Y staffer notified him his lease was not being renewed the following day.

But there are other reasons workers might prefer a new tenant to him. And they explain why Robinson has been evicted from other apartments, bumped from other housing programs and landed in shelters before.

Robinson has depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, a brain tumor and kidney disease. He hears voices. He’s attempted suicide as recently as November. He has difficulty believing others aren’t out to get him. And when things get bad he winds up in mental hospitals.

The facts are, Robinson has broken rules at the complex. He has been a danger to himself and a hazard to others. He could be a liability for any housing program.

The new Y campus is nothing fancy, but it is coveted because it’s cheap and offers a variety of support services. In addition to the furnished units, tenants have access to classrooms, counseling suites, a library, a small workout room, laundry facilities and a dining area with snack machines.

There has been a waiting list several months long since the complex opened.

Robinson says he knows he hasn’t been perfect, but he doesn’t think he deserves being kicked out. “The YMCA was built on Christian values,” he tells me. “Throwing me out in the wintertime with no place to go … what’s Christian about that?”

He’s got a point, but he’s also got other strikes working against him.

In 1998, Robinson was convicted for the sexual exploitation of a minor, a serious misdemeanor, after authorities found images on his computer of child porn. Robinson was enrolled in college at the time and argued that he used the images for a report on child prostitution and child slavery, of which he said he had been a victim.

But the Iowa Supreme Court upheld his conviction in 2000.

This year, he was charged with theft for allegedly stealing from the Windsor Heights Wal-Mart, which he says he doesn’t remember because of damage to his brain.

Robinson receives help looking after himself — drug administration, bathing, etc., — from an organization called Iowa Home Care. He receives disability and counseling services. He’s been coached on how to deal with stress, anxiety and anger, but the fact is, he struggles.

He yearns to live in a group home-type setting that provides support, supervision and acceptance of both him and his personal demons. At the moment, however, no such place exists.

In the meantime, the answer to his problem is a hard one: Any landlord who wants to get rid of him again for breaking rules likely can.

Lee Rood’s Reader’s Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com or by calling 515-284-8549. Read past reports at DesMoinesRegister.com/ReadersWatchdog.